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Automotive blogger Matt Gasnier did a compilation of worldwide sales for the month of March for The Truth About Cars, noting several hybrid models are coming on strong compared to conventional counterparts.

As for the especially stellar performance by the Prius line, it was “a historical month indeed” for Toyota’s growing sub brand and the assertion published on TTAC – which prides itself on being contrarian and having the inside scoop – is the hybrid era may have started for good.

Helped with the Japanese launch of the Alpha – called the v in North America – and the Aqua – called the c in most of the world – the Prius family logged record-breaking volumes in Japan and the U.S.

Japanese sales of the Aqua are up to 29,156 units while the regular Prius sold a record 45,496 units. This latest number includes the v version and is up 131 percent year-on-year.

The Prius family as a whole took off worldwide in March. In the U.S., where sales are not officially split into component models – although we managed to last month – the Prius family sold a record 28,711 units for a best-ever 6th place in the charts.

It is important to note TTAC’s numbers are an estimation made based on the sales figures of these vehicles in 60 countries around the world and are not official numbers.

To put these figures in perspective, estimations for world sales of the Prius family in March stand at 106,522, ahead of the estimated 102,000 sales of Toyota Corolla over the period and the 98,000 estimated Ford Focus models sold across the planet that month.

Considering the Prius c is Yaris-based and in all fairness to the Corolla, a better comparison would be to see how many units of the Corolla/Yaris duo were sold if the Prius c, Prius c and regular Prius sales are taken as a whole. The article does not mention the total Yaris sales worldwide, but does mention 22,856 European sales.

Still, there is no denying the fact the Prii are strengthening Toyota’s hybrid sales success and show the concept is being accepted by a larger portion of the buying public.

More Hybrid news

In the 1970’s, Oldsmobile called nearly every car in their line-up a Cutlass because the name commanded respect. They diluted its brand image and ruined the name.

In the 1980’s, Mercury had the popular Cougar name and decided to name most of their cars Cougars. Same thing happened.

This doesn’t mean Toyota will go out of business like these two brands, but it does show how a company can kill their cash cow.

When something sells because it’s novel, and then you make it common, you’ve taken away one reason to buy it.

Max Reid

Prius is now a sub-make like Scion with models in all sizes. But Yaris is compact car and is marked separately. Only car that is combined with Corolla is Matrix which shares the same body & engine. Now the combined sales of Corolla & Matrix is behind Prius. Infact Prius C is in short supply, when they increase it, the Prius line could come closer to Camry.

In fact in Japan, Prius (Liftback + V) sold 21,906 and Prius C sold 18,481 units taking Top 2 spots. Corolla is pushed to 14th place. Civic has been phased out long ago. The wagons and Hatches are lot more functional and they are selling well there. Same thing will be repeated here as well.

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